For Jon Teitel’s recap of the Central Connecticut State-Georgetown game – CLICK HERE
Buffalo (2-0) at Southern Illinois (0-1) – 8:00 PM EST (ESPN+)
Today’s UTR Game of the Day takes us to Carbondale, Illinois for the first of two matchups this season between the Buffalo Bulls and the Southern Illinois Salukis. Buffalo is coming off of their first-ever road win against a Top 25 team; they came from behind to defeat then-#13 West Virginia 99-94 on Friday night. CJ Massinburg had 43 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Bulls; he hit a 3-pointer with 14 seconds left in regulation that sent the game to overtime. Buffalo started overtime with a 15-6 run to take control of that game.
Southern Illinois wasn’t quite as lucky, but they certainly went down swinging in their season-opening loss at Kentucky. They led by 7 midway through the 2nd half of their game on Friday night before losing 71-59 at Rupp Arena. UK outrebounded the Salukis 48-19; this led Barry Hinson to say during his postgame comments “I’d really like to get a lot taller,” Hinson said. “We’re going to start working on that when we get on the bus. We have a bunch of tall pills that we’re going to start taking. They’re placebos, but we’ll see if they work.”
Of course, we cannot pass up an opportunity to mention Barry Hinson’s BBQ sauce:
NEWS AND NOTES
-Duke actually got more of a challenge at home against Army yesterday for the first 25 minutes of the game (as compared to their opener against Kentucky where everything went right), but their stud freshmen were just too much for Army to overcome en route to a 22-point win by the Blue Devils.
-For the second year in a row, East Tennessee State had a double-digit lead in the 2nd half on the road against a Big East team. And much like last year, they ran out of gas and ended up missing a golden opportunity for a big road win after falling to Creighton 75-69.
-The American did not have one of its better days, to put it mildly. First, SMU had their 33-game winning streak at home against noncon opponents snapped with a loss to Southern Miss. What really hurt was Central Florida losing on a buzzer-beater at home against Florida Atlantic. The only things that saved them from a really disastrous day was UConn’s blowout win at home against UMKC and a come-from-behind win by East Carolina against Lamar at home, albeit in overtime.
-Vanderbilt had a down season by recent standards, but ended up getting a decent road win at USC last night. They led much of the game but were able to overcome a late Trojan comeback.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTED GAMES
-STANFORD AT NORTH CAROLINA. Both teams come in 2-0, and have actually challenged themselves a bit. That’s especially true for North Carolina who won their season opener against a pretty good Wofford team on the road. Stanford is probably in over their heads, but the opportunity to make a big statement is there.
-SAINT BONAVENTURE AT NIAGARA (Big Four). Probably won’t be that important of a game at the end, but we will highlight it out of our sheer love of mythical conferences!
-AMERICAN AT NORTHWESTERN. American won their season opener at George Mason, which may end up meaning nothing. But if they can pick up a second true road win tonight, then we’d have to at least sit up and take notice.
-MIDDLE TENNESSEE AT BELMONT. A nice crosstown rivalry game between two teams that have been good in recent years, and come into this one undefeated.
-VERMONT AT KANSAS. The game is at least mildly interesting. Vermont is in complete rebuild mode, but they do come into this without a loss and having won a nice road game.
-UTAH AT MINNESOTA. I don’t think we are expecting too much out of either team, so both could really use an early season win.
-Detroit Mercy @ Butler – buy game
-NC A&T @ Maryland
-Jacksonville State @ Penn State – we like this Jax State team, but they were pitiful in their opener
-Troy @ Pittsburgh – buy game
-Monmouth @ Saint Joseph’s – Joe’s may be the best team in the A10
-Bowling Green @ VCU – BGSU is coming off a strong showing at Saint John’s. VCU tries to improve to 3-0
-Kennesaw State @ Samford – Samford can get to 3-0
-UIC @ Duquesne – may be a little interesting
-Prairie View A&M @ Baylor – will be interesting, but only if PVAM wins it and picks up a second big road win
-Texas Southern @ Iowa State – buy game
-UL Monroe @ Texas – both teams unbeaten
-Oklahoma @ UTSA – Oklahoma playing their second straight road game against a weak UTR team
-UC Davis @ Arkansas
-Morgon State @ DePaul
-Denver @ Kansas State – both teams unbeaten
-Long Beach State @ Arizona State – Arizona State has struggled so far, but managed to win